The rise of technologies such as virtualization and cloud computing has facilitated moving various applications previously associated with dedicated and standalone hardware onto machines providing shared hardware resources. This so-called “server consolidation” allows for a fuller utilization of available resources and, therefore, a decreased cost associated with unused resources. For example, by retiring servers that were previously only lightly utilized, energy consumption, floor space, and other server costs may be reduced.
Standalone servers, however, do provide other benefits. For example, standalone servers provide for rigid containment of hardware failures; if hardware associated with an application fails, then it may only affect that application. Server consolidation, however, introduces the possibility that a single hardware failure may impact multiple applications. For example, if four applications are sharing a CPU and if that CPU experiences a hardware failure, then all four applications may be compromised and unsalvageable.